Knights Archives: Reaper Rising
by Requiem the Eternal
Summary: Josiah Black is the newly recruited Emissary of the Horseman Death. His job is simple: hunt demons/wayward souls, take 'em to Death. Except...this is no ordinary mission. See, Chance, his predecessor, made a little girl in Oregon a promise to protect her family. But he ain't the Emissary no more... Now, Jo's gonna have to dig deep...or they're all gonna be dead.(pt1:Chance/pt2 Jo)
1. Into the Falls

Act I: Chance

 _ **It was quiet in the woods that night; quiet but for the rain pouring down in a cascade of chilling water. You'd think it was any other town; but the gnome scuttling by muttering to himself assures you that this is it. You sniff the air animalistically; identifying several scents that are common in the American Northwest: bear, pine sap, Bigfoot.**_

 _ **And of course the metallic tang of your own blood leaking out of you.**_

 _ **You look to your side to inspect your wound; a trio of vicious-looking scars have exposed your inner muscle and sinew to the pouring rain, and to the mud congealing underneath your feet. You look around frantically, searching for a place to rest, to shield you from the rain so your wounds can heal. You catch site of cave not far from your position; and so, with your side erupting in agonizing pain, you make your way to it.**_

 _ **It isn't often that you ask the Creator for help; not because you don't believe he will, you just never needed to. But right now, this moment,...you turn your head to the sky, and**_ _ **beg**_ _ **Adonai for a miracle...**_


	2. Chapter 1: That morning

"DIPPER! WAKE UP! THAT STUPID GOAT BARFED IN HERE AGAIN!"

 _Ugh,_ thought said 12-year old, _He's gonna wake the dead with that racket._ In any other situation, this would of course have been hypothetical. In Gravity Falls, however, this was an actual concern. While Dipper was pretty sure that Grunkle Stan's shouting wouldn't actually wake the dead, it would have been nice if Stan would be a little more considerate of people's sleep.

"At least Mabel didn't wake me up", he thought to himself.

His twin sister had the unfortunate ability to be as loud and insistent as humanly possible; even at the wee hours of the morning. Still, it'd be preferable over Stan's bellowing any day.

"Huh," he said aloud as he looked at her empty bed," where IS Mabel, anyway?"

The hyperactive adolescent in question was currently running through the woods surrounding the Mystery Shack with Waddles, her pet pig. She had planned on waking up Dipper with the new glitter cannon she'd been working on, but had decided against it.

As she and Waddles bounded through the woods, she looked up and marveled at how peaceful the sky could, despite the fact that it was a sky over Gravity Falls, Oregon; which was(in her opinion), the freakiest place in the whole state, if not the Continental U.S. The delightful duo soon reached a nearby cave; a cave that was SO dark and SO creepy, that it was the only one that Stan had told the twins repeatedly to _**never go into.**_ He had said this in such a forbidding, authoritative tone that it made **her** uneasy.

So she called out, "Come on, Waddles; last one home is a rotten stinker!"

Not wanting to be a rotten stinker, Waddles was soon in tow, high-tailing it back to the Shack.

Mabel chuckled to herself, "Silly pig," and proceeded to make her way away from the spooky cave. She didn't notice as she did so, a dark figure leaning at the side of the cave, watching her leave with every step. She **did** however, hear his cry.

It was silent…so much so that she almost mistook it for a leaf or the wind.

But, no, there it was again; a faint echo in the wind:

" _h...he...help...me." * wheezing cough* "help me…..please…."_

She was understandably suspicious; I mean, who could blame the girl, this was **GRAVITY** **FALLS**! _**Anything**_ could have been in that cave. But...try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to abandon the broken-sounding voice begging for help.

"Aww, curse my kind heart", she huffed at the air, "I know Dipper's gonna be **so** mad…."

And so, resolve steeled, she made her way into the cave.


End file.
